Page:Hilda Wade (1900).pdf/57

'what else could prevent you from proposing to Daphne—when you are so undeniably in love with her?'

'A great deal,' he answered. 'For example: the sense of my own utter unworthiness.'

'One's own unworthiness,' I replied, 'though doubtless real—p'f, p'f—is a barrier that most of us can readily get over when our admiration for a particular lady waxes strong enough. So this is the prior attachment!' I took the portrait down and scanned it.

'Unfortunately, yes. What do you think of her?'

I scrutinised the features. 'Seems a nice enough little thing,' I answered. It was an innocent face, I admit. Very frank and girlish.

He leaned forward eagerly. 'That's just it. A nice enough little thing! Nothing in the world to be said against her. While Daphne—Miss Tepping, I mean———' His silence was ecstatic.

I examined the photograph still more closely. It displayed a lady of twenty or thereabouts, with a weak face, small, vacant features, a feeble chin, a good-humoured, simple mouth, and a wealth of golden hair that seemed to strike a keynote.

'In the theatrical profession?' I inquired at last, looking up.

He hesitated. 'Well, not exactly,' he answered.

I pursed my lips and blew a ring. 'Music-hall stage?' I went on, dubiously.

He nodded. 'But a girl is not necessarily any the less a lady because she sings at a music-hall,' he added, with warmth, displaying an evident desire to be just to his betrothed, however much he admired Daphne.

'Certainly not,' I admitted. 'A lady is a lady; no occupation can in itself unladify her. . . . But on the